Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica Rules the Dark Side
(Jessica Series, Book #2)
by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Young Adult | Paranormal Romance

When Jessica Packwood found out she was a Romanian vampire princess, she had the shock of her teenage life. Turns out that was the easy part. Now, married to Prince Lucius Vladescu, she has to claim her throne and convince a vampire nation she’s fit to be their queen. But Jess can’t even order a decent meal from her castle’s Romanian staff, let alone deal with devious undead subjects who would love to see her fail.

And when Lucius is accused of murdering a vampire Elder and imprisoned without the blood he needs, Jessica finds herself alone, fighting for both their survivals. Desperate to clear her husband’s name and win his release, Jess enlists the help of her best friend Mindy Stankowicz and Lucius’s mysterious Italian cousin, Raniero Lovatu. But both of them are keeping some dark secrets. Can Jess figure out who to trust – and how to rise to power – before she loses everything, including the vampire she loves?

Full of romance, mystery, and danger, the highly anticipated sequel to Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side shows that sometimes a princess has to earn her “happily ever after” – with a sharpened stake in hand.

Settling into married life can be an adventure, but also quite difficult . . . especially if you're a newly-turned vampire princess ( Princess Antanasia Dragomir Vladescu ) who is lacking in power and your husband has been recently accused for a crime that could easily carry a death sentence. Having always had someone strong to stand by her her whole life, Jessica, for the first time ever, much now stand alone and hopefully gain some much needed strength/confidence/knowledge to free her husband from his falsely accused crime. Can she find the proof that Lucius's needs in time?

The murder suspense builds quickly throughout this continuation book for Jessica, but the overall tale carries a much darker plot line than the first in the series - something I did not enjoy so much. I felt the story was lacking the quirky romance that I praised so much in Book #1, but I did like that some well-loved past characters took on a stronger role ( Mindy & Raniero ). Expect lots of climatic vampire drama for the new couple, but the story fell short for me since Book #2 carried on like a whole new story (not part of a series) . . . sure there were the same characters, but the feel to the book was moody, bleak, and just very heavy with the grim subject matter (lots of gruesome death, dank prison cells, creepy cemeteries, etc.), making it difficult to enjoy throughout, compared to Book #1's silliness and whimsical charm.

Likes: Raniero grew on me! At first, I wasn't so keen on him, but in the end, I really liked him a lot . . . maybe b/c I'm such a fan of character development and his whole troubled back-story was revealed throughout the book.

Dislikes: Jessica was very whiny and hopeless at times, ugh!

Rating:

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Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jekel Loves Hyde
by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Young Adult | Supernatural Thriller | Romance

Jill Jekel has always obeyed her parents’ rules – especially the one about never opening the mysterious, old box in her father’s office. But when her dad is murdered, and her college savings disappear, this good girl is tempted to peek inside, because the contents just might be key to winning a lucrative chemistry scholarship.

To better her odds, Jill enlists the help of gorgeous, brooding Tristen Hyde, who has his own dark secrets locked away. As the team of Jekel and Hyde, they recreate experiments based on the classic novel, hoping not only to win a prize, but to save Tristen’s sanity. Maybe his life. As things heat up in the lab though, Jill’s accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and will compel her to risk everything – even Tristen’s love – just for the thrill of being… bad.

Jill, a brilliant student, tragically lost her father and after learning some dark truths about him, must now win scholarship money to keep alive any hope of attending college. Tristen, an accomplished musician, is a British heart-throb, but deep down inside contains a dangerous monster just waiting to get out. Thus, both teenage descendants of the legendary Dr. Jekyll ( Jill Jekel ) and Mr. Hyde ( Tristen Hyde ) team up to recreate tricky experiments with the aid of an old box holding “original documents detailing the actual experiments that inspired the novel”. They both enter into their chemist partnership for different reasons, but soon realize things could never really turn out as they hope!

I had high hopes for this book since I thoroughly enjoyed Fantaskey's first book, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, but this book just kept getting worse and worse. I don't mind a dark tale as long as it is a good tale, but this one was just too morbidly unsatisfactory for my taste. Rape, abuse, murder, depression . . . those are just a few of the grim subjects touched throughout the story. Also, I couldn't say I liked the main characters: Jill was either way too timid or too brassy & Tristen came off as too vigilant and intent on only doing what he wanted. I could go into a lot of detail here as well on how the writing style conflicted much of the plot, how unbelievable their romantic relationship developed and the unsatisfying ending, but won't since I'll just say I was sorely disappointed and begrudgingly finished the book even though I knew it would get a low rating.

Likes: Can't think of much since there was just too much sadness and self-pity going on throughout.

Dislikes: Lots, but mostly . . . contains really heavy topics . . . so don't expect a cheery or delightful read.

Rating:

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Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Paranormal Romance / Young Adult

Jessica Packwood is a normal teen attending Woodrow Wilson High School. Her mathematical nature has even given her a slightly geeky reputation, which is about to change with the arrival of Lucius Vladescu, who seems to be stalking her. She tells her mother about him and learns that she is really a Romanian vampire princess who has been betrothed to Lucius at birth. She knew she was adopted, but this revelation comes as a shock. It is this agreement that has kept rival vampire clans, the Dragomirs and the Vladescus, at an uneasy peace. If the marriage does not take place, war will ensue and threaten the ultimate destruction of Jessica's vampire family. To say that this is a lot for the teen to take in is an understatement. Lucius is gorgeous, old world, tender as well as arrogant, and very overprotective of her. However, she chooses to date Jake, a handsome but rather dull boy. But not all is as it seems in the vampire world, and as the story progresses, circumstances force Jessica and Lucius to take matters into their own hands; in doing so, they examine their true feelings about themselves, family, and duty.

Down-to-earth mathlete Jessica is completely horrified when, a few months shy of her 18th birthday, a Romanian named Lucius shows up on her doorstep, claiming that he and she are vampire royalty betrothed to each other since infancy—what's worse, her adoptive parents verify the betrothal story and explain that her birth parents identified themselves as vampires, too. Fantaskey makes this premise work by playing up its absurdities without laughing at them, endowing Jessica with a coolly ironic sensibility and Lucius with old-world snobbery that Jessica's girlfriends find irresistible & dub him the nickname "Luscious Lucius".

I've had this book on my TBR pile for awhile now and finally got around to it. I'm glad I did! I was so absorbed in the conflict between Jessica (or known by her original Romanian name - Antanasia) and Lucius that I finished the book in one day! It begins like many of the cooky vampy love stories out there, but the more you get into the actual tale - the more you enjoy the characters and get sucked (haha no pun intended) into where their lives are leading them. I loved the flip of feelings between the two and it even had me crying at parts . . . a mark of a great book to touch me so emotionally! Perfect weekend read if you want to become absorbed in a fun paranormal book!!! Check out Jessica & Lucius's continuation HERE.

Likes: I was surprisingly shocked how wonderful this book was!

Dislikes: Starts out rather slow and then it ends too quickly!

Rating:

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